Sacha, saying that you don’t want to be a programmer in
the 21st century because you don’t want Marketing between you and the
user is like saying you didn’t want to be a programmer in the 20th
century because you didn’t like waiting for the operator who carries
your stack of punch cards to the computer. The way software
development gets organized is always changing. It’s getting lighter
weight all the time.

And he’s right, you know. I enjoy stitching systems together and
thinking of just the right tool(s) to fit people’s needs. I love
working with people to figure out how they can make those tools a part
of their lives. I need more actual practice doing this, I think – the
technology evangelism I’m doing at IBM is barely a taste – but it
seems like a lot of fun.

Looking at the digital tools we have around us: websites, social computing services and tools (social networking sites, wikis, blogs, mobile interaction, etc.), portals, intranets, mobile information access, search, recommendation services, personals, shopping, commerce, etc. and each of these is a social communication tool that is based on technology. Each of these has uses for the information beyond the digital walls of their service. Each of these has people who are interacting with other people through digital technology mediation. This goes beyond information architecture, user experience design, interaction design, application development, engineering, etc. It has needs that are more holistic (man I have been trying to avoid that word) and broad as well as deep. It is a need for understanding what is central to human social interactions. It is a need for understanding the technical and digital impact our tools and services have in mediating the social interaction between people. It is a need for understanding how to tie all of this together to best serve people and their need for information that matters to them when they want it and need it.

Random Japanese sentence: ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂƒÃ‚ÂšÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂƒÃ‚Â«ÃƒÂ£Ã‚Â‚Ã‚Â·ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂƒÃ‚Â£ÃƒÂ§Ã‚ÂŒÃ‚Â«ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚ÂŒÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂƒÃ‚Â†ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂƒÃ‚Â¼ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂƒÃ‚Â–ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂƒÃ‚Â«ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â®ÃƒÂ¤Ã‚Â¸Ã‚Â‹ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â§ÃƒÂ§Ã‚ÂœÃ‚Â ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â£ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â¦ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â„ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚ÂŸÃƒÂ£Ã‚Â€Ã‚Â‚ A Persian cat was sleeping under the table.

“”The best bloggers use their blogs as a tool to engage with others on a particular topic. Too many people focus on telling their story,” advises IBM’s blogger in chief, Christopher Barger. He had been busy writing his own blog for 18 months on topics utterly unrelated to work when the chief executive summoned him to his office and informed him he had been reading his blog for a year. After an initial panic, Barger realised he was being promoted, not fired. He is now responsible for “tying blogging to IBM’s overall strategy”. In a company that employs 300,000 people, promoting a culture of internal and external blogging has led to connecting groups of people tackling similar problems across the world, identifying experts, such as Ed Brill who works on IBM’s Lotus software, now routinely quoted by journalists and analysts as an expert, and spotting future talent – such as Sacha Chau, a placement student currently at IBM Toronto, now gaining recognition for her popular internal blog.

Minor fixes: Sacha Chua, not Chau, and I’m actually a graduate student on a research fellowship, not a placement student. =) But yeah! Way fun.

Random Japanese sentence: ÃƒÂ§Ã‚Â§Ã‚ÂÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â¯ÃƒÂ§Ã‚ÂŒÃ‚Â«ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚ÂŒÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚ÂÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â®ÃƒÂ§Ã‚ÂŠÃ‚Â¬ÃƒÂ£Ã‚Â‚Ã‚Â’ÃƒÂ¨Ã‚Â¿Ã‚Â½ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â„ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â‹ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â‘ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â¦ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â„ÃƒÂ£Ã‚Â‚Ã‚Â‹ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â®ÃƒÂ£Ã‚Â‚Ã‚Â’ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â¿ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚ÂŸÃƒÂ£Ã‚Â€Ã‚Â‚ I saw a cat running after the dog.

Every so often, I like setting myself tech goals. My first major open
source tech goal was to hack the iPaq, considering that undergrads
were expected to do Linux on the iPaq as part of their CS degree in
some university in the US. So I did, and I ended up

The next thing I wanted to do was get into Emacs Lisp. I ended up
contributing to Emacs Relay Chat and helping out with Planner and
related modules.

Now I think I want to be more into Ruby. And Perl 6, which looks
awesome. Maybe I can practice technical writing by filling in the
documentation and writing sample code…

Random Japanese sentence: ÃƒÂ§Ã‚ÂŒÃ‚Â«ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚ÂŒÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂƒÃ‚ÂÃƒÂ£Ã‚Â‚Ã‚ÂºÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂƒÃ‚ÂŸÃƒÂ£Ã‚Â‚Ã‚Â’ÃƒÂ¥Ã‚Â—Ã‚Â…ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚ÂŽÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â¤ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â‘ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚ÂŸÃƒÂ£Ã‚Â‚Ã‚ÂˆÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â†ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â§ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â™ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â­ÃƒÂ£Ã‚Â€Ã‚Â‚ Seems like the cat had the wind of a rat.